Old Age

(The Stumbler after 1 hour walk in the freezing cold, wearing his Ga Tech cap from college which still fits!)

I'm getting old. I've over weight. I don't exercise. My father died at age 54 from a heart attack. Even though I have Korean health insurance, I recently lost my USA health insurance, and was denied supplemental health insurance here in Korea. And my back's been acting up again. All these points hit me suddenly - I don't want to die early. I'm trying to improve my health. I've visited some doctors, and my complete health checkup is ongoing. Any interesting news that's not too private I'll post as I learn it.

However, there is no time to spare! I've already started diet and exercise. Let's talk about exercise first. Walking. Last week was 30 minutes per day, this week is 1 hour per day. Today I planned a new walking route, which happened to take me by a brand new shopping mall, Times Square, apparently the biggest in Korea?








It's already time for Christmas decorations here in Seoul. Much too early, if you ask me.



Made it back home in just over an hour. My Google Map planning worked perfectly. Let's change the subject to diet. I ate pretty well last week, but the doctor made some specific changes for this week. I have a list of foods to include in my diet this week - I only know about half of them. Of the half I do know, I can probably only cook half of them. It's going to be a challenge. At the corner vegetable stand, I stopped and bought two of the items I remembered being on my list:



In the middle of course is a small pumpkin, which I can probably figure out how to cook and eat. The things around the pumpkin I believe are persimmons, which I have no idea how to cook or eat. I *think* I've eaten these like fruit years ago, but am not sure. Anyone have a recipe for persimmon pumpkin?

One other interesting thing today was that I went to get a series of X-Rays made of my back and related bones. I went after work, and it was right at their closing time. Fortunately, there were no other patients, as the robe they gave me to wear was entirely too small. It only overlapped 1 cm at the front, and even then not well. I was really open for all to see, but fortunately they let me keep my underwear on! The nurse didn't quite know what to do with me. But the X-Rays went well, even though I ripped one of the sleeves in one position she put me in!

More Teeth

I bit down on a strange snack last night, which was basically dried ramyeon noodles, and broke a filling on my front tooth! This is a tooth that broke in a very similar accident involving a peanut several years ago, which actually chipped the tooth. My American dentist made a "filling", more like a repair, on the tooth which has lasted a few years. Come to think of it, I believe this broke once before in the USA and he re-repaired it one time.

So this morning, I arrived at my Korean dentist promptly at opening time 9:30am. I asked to have my tooth repaired and all my teeth cleaned. I discussed it with the dentist, and then they started cleaning. After the cleaning, the nurse said I had to come back next week for the repair, because Saturday was such a busy day. But the dentist saw me as I was about to walk out the door, and asked why was I leaving? He then spoke quickly to the nurse, and they turned me around and put me back in the chair. Total time - 1 hour, no appointment, about $140 final price.

P.S. He told me the repair would only last a couple of years, and I'll eventually need a crown on that tooth. I hope my bank account will be larger in two more years.

Ergonomics

In one of several attempts to ward off back pain, I have (hopefully) improved my office enviroment. First, I got a new chair, supposedly good for your back. I'm told this is the Korean equivalent to the Herman Miller chair, called Duoback.



Ironically, I probably sprained a couple back muscles wrestling this chair out of the shipping carton. And a few more while laying on the floor balancing the heavy chair above my head while trying to line it up with the rolling base (which rolls VERY easily, even when you don't want it to!)

Once the chair was operational, I realized that I was still hunched over, because of the height of my laptop screens. Whereupon I elevated my laptop to eye level with a lap top "stand", and elevated my auxiliary LCD display with a box.



Now I have no excuse for poor posture (he types while straightening his back from the slouching position).

EDIT - interesting quote from the Herman Miller website - "Zero is Hero. We won't stop until we've achieved nothing." Not quite sure what to make of this...

Meet Brazil Meat

My friend Ben has been bugging me for well over a year to try out his favorite steak restaurant out in Gangnam, a Brazilian place called Mercado. Finally we went last night, and it was really great. Some unbelievably delicious meat. Served at your table on swords! All sorts of meats, mostly beef, were served. My favorite was beef wrapped in bacon, and garlic beef. Chicken and veal was also served. The most unusual was chicken hearts!

Since this was my first visit, the waiter insisted I try out the sword and knife myself!



I saw a few actual Brazilians guests (or so I assumed, based on the fact that they were speaking what sounded like Portugese to the owner). But most of the guests were Koreans. I guess this place is popular with the locals, too. It was all you can eat for about $22. Here is a group photo of the well-fed guests:



The only suggestion I could make, and this is really nit-picky, would be to play some Brazilian background music. I think some Bossa Nova and Samba style music would really complete the dining experience.

Let's Eat

I was reminded last night of a class I took in college. I don't even remember the title or the overall subject matter of the class, except that is was in the humanities category, probably a history or literature class. The one lecture that I remember was about (sit down for this) EATING! I remember the professor spent the whole class talking about how mankind had a history of combining celebrations and eating. Celebratory feast. In the USA we have many examples of this - of course there is Thanksgiving, New Years, Christmas, Easter, Fourth of July, and many other holidays where we will gather with family and friends to celebrate the holiday and share a (usually large) meal. On a smaller scale, you might invite a few friends to dinner to celebrate a birthday, a new job, a retirement, etc.

In Korea, I have previously attended a Korean wedding and also a special birthday party that is given for a child's first birthday. Both of those events include the guests dining together, often from a large buffet with endless food. Last night I attended a Korean funeral for the first time, expecting it to be a short solemn gathering. There was certainly an air of solemnity, but I was surprised to find that the funeral included a full dinner! All the family and friends arrived throughout the evening, paid their respects to the immediate family, and dined together at tables next to the chapel area (for lack of a better term).

While I haven't been to all that many funerals in the USA, I don't recall eating at any. I thought about it last night, and I this dinner + funeral combination is a good idea. It doesn't need to be full-fledged New Orleans' style wake with a Dixieland Band and a parade, but having all the family and friends eat dinner together seems like a good way to celebrate the life of the person who has passed away. Please pass the kimchi...

Puzzler

I've been doing circuit board layout all week long, so last night at dinner when my friend gave me this puzzle to solve, I was surprised. It used the exact same part of my brain as circuit board routing, and it took me only a few seconds to solve.



Rules: You must connect 1 to 1, 2 to 2, and 3 to 3 by a line (the line can curve, it doesn't have to be straight). But the lines may not cross each other, and the lines cannot go outside the border.

It was so easy, I made a slightly harder version by adding 4 and 5 to the puzzle:



(sorry for the poor sketches, I'm learning to use my computer sketch pad. So far, the results look like something a 3-year-old kid would draw).

Royalty

Sunday my neck and shoulder was very stiff. I remembered the previous week's haircut, and how relaxing the scalp massage was. So, I asked an online Korean friend WH if he knew anyplace that gave scalp massage like the hair shops. He found for me the "Chinese Royal Massage" office, just a few blocks away from my office!

While scalp was not a choice, "neck, shoulder, and back" was available and only about $12 for 30 minute massage. Since that was what was hurting, I decided to go for it. (Other choices that I could translate were foot massage and aroma-therapy).

The first problem was changing clothes:



The "training clothes" that they gave me to wear wouldn't fit me! (I've had this problem before at the Dr. Fish place). So, I just wore my t-shirt and jeans, and went to the lay down on the special table.



I'm not sure if he was a China man or Korean, but this strong, stout man began giving the massage. At first it was pretty relaxing, similar to the head massage. But as he progressed the massage became stronger and stronger. While the massage was titled "neck, shoulders and back", he seemed to focus on the back. My back normally hurts, and the muscles are all in knots anyway - no doubt this style of massage was probably good for me. But I wasn't sure I was going to survive it. In the end, with some strange leverage, he was using his whole body weight to loosen my muscles. I have a stooped posture, and one set of exercises he did was stretching my arms back, thus straightening my back. I did feel a bit taller when it was over.

Conclusion? Well, whatever tightness I may have felt on my arrival was gone, only to be replaced by pains in places I didn't know I had. As soon as I can walk again, I'll post my final opinion.

Too Far

I forgot to mention this on my last overseas trip. You've perhaps heard how the airlines are clamping down and charging extra fees these days. For example, to check a second bag, to check even one bag, overweight bag fees, etc. Well on my last trip they ruled that I was overweight, and I had to wear this tag througout my whole journey!



While I am too heavy, I think this is going a bit too far.

French Toast

Over on Facebook, I recently confessed about my indulgent, high calorie, high-fat breakfast that I sometimes enjoy. Here's a photo.



Extra-thick bacon from Costco (probably means extra fat and calories, too). French Toast prepared with thick, soft, white bread having no nutritional value whatsoever. Sprinkled with cinnamon and drenched with pancake syrup. No need for butter, and the toast was prepared in the frying pan with plenty of butter. Lowfat milk, however, tops off the meal along with a cup of black tea.

Knob and Post

You don't see the old knob and post wiring method very often these days. But I saw this at a popular restaurant this weekend.



I'm guessing this might be low-voltage lighting, although I wasn't brave enough to lick my fingers and touch the wire. I've been bit one time here in Korea by 220VAC, and I don't want to repeat that again. I did get a few odd looks while taking photos of the ceiling, but then again, I'm used to getting odd looks in Korea so it didn't bother me.

Quick Dinner

Quick and simple dinner from the 7-11 (well, actually it was the Family Mart).



One can beer, SPAM/egg triangle kim-bap, and boiled quail eggs. The breakfast dinner of champions. Yummmm

Dreams Again

This summer I had a possible client with a possible project here in Korea. The work continued to be delayed and delayed, and the final form of the project in the end was just unworkable. I sent a very polite letter declining the project, and never heard anything from them (this was about 3 or 4 weeks ago). Yesterday, over lunch, I just happened to mention to my colleague CH, "I wonder what happened with that company? I wonder why they didn't even reply or confirm my letter?"

Well, last night I had a dream. I was in a large hotel ball room, where dinner was being served. Over in one corner, there was a group of people from this very company conducting a training class! I went over to talk to them, and then my dream ended and I woke up.

This morning, after my breakfast, my cell phone rang with a strange number. I answered, and it was someone from this very same company, asking if I was possibly interested in a different project!

Just too weird. Don't know if this project will pan out or not, there are very few and sketchy details right now, but who knows...

HAND UPDATE: As of Saturday, I could really tell it was healing well. My strength was slowly returning, and I could almost make a complete fist without any pain. However, Sunday I had a couple days setback. I went shopping at Costco, and no matter how careful I was to only use my left hand, I think I hurt it some lifting the shopping "box". Also Saturday and Sunday evening I installed an auxiliary audio power amplifier for Trevor on their terrace. I was so careful, made other people do any lifting or wire pulling. But just once or twice, I slipped up and ended up holding the entire power amplifier in my right hand. Just now, Tuesday morning, I feel almost back to the point I was Saturday before I over-exerted it.

ELBOW UPDATE: The swelling is getting smaller each day, although I think slower than the doctor had suggested. It is still quite warm to the touch, however. It has gone from the painful stage to the numb/itchy stage. But if it doesn't improve remarkably in the next couple days I'll go back.

Medieval Torture

Yesterday the doctor asked me to return today to have another look at the elbow. We finished at the factory in time, so I stopped by after work. He said the swelling was going down, gave me one more antibiotic shot, and said to keep taking the oral antibiotics. If it was still warm and swollen on Friday come by again, if not, it's all over and no reason to come back.

As I was leaving, I asked him about my formerly broken hand, which is still weak and a bit painful. I asked if they had a hot whirlpool tub I could soak my hand in for a short while. He said that they don't use hot water, but instead would give me a "paraffin treatment"! It was either no extra cost or $2 extra, I'm not sure.

This was something I would imagine they used to torture people in days gone by. A heated bowl of hot wax. Dip your hands in repeatedly, and layers build up on your hands. After 5 layers, let it all cool, peel off the wax, and repeat 4 times! It was painfully hot. Several times I wondered if I wasn't actually giving myself burns. Especially the first dip, when it was my bare hand. After that, the subsequent dips in the wax were a little less painful.



I have no idea why this is used instead of water. My hand does feel a little better, but that might just be because it has cooled down from being steamed like a crab. I had the nurse photograph my hands immediately after the procedure. Can you guess which one was treated?



And the one positive side effect: there is absolutely no residual smell from the cast. Now my entire hand smells like a crayon!

Elbow Grease

Well, not grease, but rather medicine:




About two weeks ago, as my hand was healing up, the elbow on my other arm began to hurt. I didn't recall hitting it or anything. My best guess was that it was some delayed pain from the sidewalk fall which broke my hand. However, I did NOT mention this to the doctor. I thought it was just a sprain and would heal on its own. I just couldn't face the thought of having a cast on my hand AND my elbow.

But where my hand has been healing just fine, this elbow hasn't gotten any better, and the swelling was getting larger and it felt very warm to the touch. Finally I went to the doctor today and showed him the elbow. He immediately said that it wasn't the bone nor a sprain, but instead I had an infection! Just like when I thought I had a sprain, I have no idea what caused it. So I was given an antibiotic shot, a 3-day course of oral antibiotics, and told to check back tomorrow. He said something about aspirating the infection with a needle if it didn't get better soon!

That's A Lot of Spam

My internet service provider has a spam filtering service. You can visit a website which allows you to search and review emails which have been identified as spam. This is necessary sometimes when an email gets accidentally flagged as spam. Well today I happened to notice this statistic counter on the site:



That says that 90% of all my incoming emails are spam! That's hard to believe!

Who is Ben Harper?

"Who is Ben Harper?" you might ask. I certainly did. Caught this song on the radio the other day, and let me warn you the tune will stick in you mind for days on end!

Steal My Kisses (YouTube Link)

I actually sent a text message to the radio station, asking for the singer. I received a prompt reply from the station with the answer, addressed to me personally. Kind of Big Brother-ish, since I didn't send my name in the message. I must investigate this further.

The above link is to a performance at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles from 2003. In addition to the song, we are treated to an excellent extended bass solo on a Fender 5-string bass.

Ben Harper seems to be one of several American musicians that I have learned of here in Korea, who have a larger following outside the USA than within. Again, listen at your own risk.

If you like his voice, and can get past the full-sleeve tatoos, listen to some of his gospel songs on YouTube with the "Blind Boys of Alabama" group. Good Stuff.

(Apologies to Young Stumbler #1's music blog. I don't intend to compete, this is just a one-time thing. I will return to normal, boring posts soon.)

Thumb's Back

Almost a week with this splint, and my hand itself is still swollen and hurting. Even though I was told to come back in 2 weeks, I went back to the doctor's today to ask if there was anything that could be done. I was thinking ice or heat therapy. Well, he was concerned about the swelling, and took another X-ray. Turns out the original bone near my thumb which was suspect before, is just fine now. But instead, my pinky finger is partially broken (not the finger itself, but way down in the palm part.

So I have a different splint, on the other side of my hand. My thumb is free, but my fingers are more restricted. He said usually he could use a waterproof cast, but my hand was too swollen. Instead I get the splint. Estimated healing time 3-4 weeks! Next visit 2 weeks.

Super Ultra King Klutz

Fell flat on my face last night, just walkin down the sidewalk minding my own business. Well, not my face, but rather I caught myself with my right hand. And boy it sure hurt this morning.



Went to the doctor, and got lucky. It was 5 minutes before lunch, so they rushed me through, no wait (that I was the only patient helped, of course). Doctor said it was probably just a sprain, but took an x-ray to be sure. After studying the film, he said my scaphoid bone (don't know it? click here) might be fractured, it wasn't clear. Fortunately (well, not so fortunately since I'm right handed) the treatment is the same - put it in a "splint". More like 1/2 of a cast held on by a long bandage. The splint material looks like these modern lightweight casts they use these days instead of plaster. It got really warm while it was setting.

Anyway, he says come back in 2 weeks, and a follow-up x-ray will show more clearly whether or not there is a fracture. I sure hope not, or else he'll have me in this splint for weeks more. In and out in about 10 minutes, total cost about $40! And the doctor spoke English...

Safe Recycling...

...or, how do you throw away a trash can?



I've noticed this iron safe located in our office building's recycling area.



Is the safe there to be recycled? Or is it store very expensive items to be recycled (gold teeth perhaps)?

Bar Zippo

This photo is for The Stumbling Brother. I'll take him here if he ever visits Seoul.

Back to Seoul

I made it back to Korea okay. It's interesting that during 1 month in the USA, I don't think that I heard one news report about the Swine Influenza. On the flight, they handed out an extra form to fill out, regarding the flu. We were told to turn it in when we deplaned. That was interesting - the took my form and I think checked my temperature. It looked like a thermometer that you use in your ear, except this on didn't actually go inside my ear. He just pointed it into my ear.

Then two days later, I got a phone call from someone in the government (health department?). She said they were following up on all passengers arriving from America, and wanted to check that I was not experiencing flu symptoms (I am not). My colleague CH reported that they also called him two weeks ago when he returned from the USA. They are taking this flu very seriously here.



Today I made a short trip to Costco, and finally found a small George Foreman grill. It is a very small one, a good size for cooking for one. What kept me from buying one in the past is that the few such grills I've found here in Korea were all too large.

I noticed that Jackie Chan is now promoting the grill, along with George Foreman! There is an Asian recipie book entitled "Jackie Chan's 10 Favorite Recipes" included in the package. It is nice to have an owner's manual for a Korean appliance that includes text in English as well as Korean (in fact, there's Japanese and Chinese, too). I think I could do a lot more with my oven and rice machine if I could only read the instructions.



Finally, I want to thank the kind family that let me sit at their table in the Costco cafeteria (chicken bake and sweet pickle relish - yummmm). As usual, I made the mistake of visiting Costco on Sunday, the most crowded day of the week, and there were no free tables in the dining area. I was pleasantly surprised when I heard a voice in English ask if I would like a seat. My table mates were Korean Americans, living in both Korea and Virginia, back here in Seoul for summer vacation.

Fourth BBQ

We all stumbled to The Stumbling Parents' new home yesterday for a Fourth of July picnic. Let me count the food

• BBQ Pork Ribs
• Grilled Vegetables
• Squash
• Zuchinni
• Baby Red Peppers
• Mushrooms
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Salad
• Baked Beans
• Potato Chips
• Watermelon
• Pound Cake

We used their new BBQ grill:



I was given the job of grilling the ribs. There were three racks, having about 15 ribs each.



As you can see here, they were delicious. At least The Stumbler liked them (please ignore my grease-covered face and sauce-covered fingers):



Everyone else was more civilized eating their meal. Some folks actually used silverware!!!



We had a great time, and left fully stuffed.

The Stumbling Parents...

...have stumbled into town! They moved about 2 miles from our home, arriving last weekend. It has been a busy and fun week for them, unloading their trailer and shopping for lots of new things for the house. I have used these devices several times this week, as we moved a bed, refrigerator, washing machine and clothes dryer.



Hand truck and Dolly. My arms are still bruised from the refrigerator - boy, was that heavy. Anyway their home is slowly filling. A few more trailer loads and it will be full.

Unrelated to their move entirely... Young Stumber #3 and I went to see the summer blockbuster "Tranformers 2" the other day. We really enjoyed it, although we both agreed that the last hour could have easily been condensed to 15 minutes. As we left the theater, I noticed this unusual restaurant:





A restaurant that only serves Ketchup???? Surely not. We were in too much of a hurry to investigate further. It was really hot, we wanted to get to the air conditioned car as quickly as possible. Also, we've heard that almost every restaurant in this shopping center is over-priced. Maybe another time, after all, how much can a Ketchup meal cost?

Mish Mash

This is one of my favorite styles of road signs in Korea. This is not the most complicated, but it is a good example. You arrive at a crazy intersection, and are greeted by a crazier road sign trying to explain things. Surprisingly, the signs do a pretty good job, although they can look like a complex schematic drawing at times. Here is one I snapped from a taxi over near the Niagara Hotel a couple weeks ago - the focus is bad, but you get the idea.



Speaking of signs, I can't stop laughing at this Konglish sign (courtesy of, and shamelessly stolen from, Angelo Apostolakis' Facebook photo album). You can zoom in and read it yourself, but believe me when I tell you it says:

Please, Remove the color fork before taste the menu. (It might cause the safe problem)

Southern BBQ

During CH's visit, I introduced him to some true southern BBQ. It isn't Memphis, but this place is pretty good. We had the pork plate, complete with slaw, potatoes, and hush puppies. It was delicious, but filling.

Whiskey

After many years of just driving by, I finally scheduled a visit to the Jack Daniels Whiskey Distillery this week. My colleague CH was visiting for some business meetings, and we happened to be driving right by the factory. Here is CH in front of the visitor's center.



Here are some barrels of whiskey being aged:



It was a really interesting tour. Highly recommended. Now I need to find a bottle of Gentleman Jack...

It's A Breeze

I have made a temporary office in what used to be Young Stumber #2's room. One problem was the ceiling fan. On low speed, it vibrated. On medium speed, it shook the ceiling and made horrible sounds. High speed was forbidden. Well, we finally got a replacement fan and installed it.



The box advertised this fan would only take 5 minutes to install. It should be a breeze, right? Well, no breeze until almost 2 hours later (well, that did include a 1 hour nap while the battery power drill charged up). But finally there is a nice and QUIET breeze in the office.

Hyundai Sonata

We went used car shopping this weekend. Young Stumbler #3 needed a car, which she will share with me when I'm in town. We went to the "sell your own" car lot, and considered several models. There were Toyotas, Mazdas, Hyundais and something called a Ford Focus. We finally settled on this Hyundai Sonata. It was somewhat unusual, it had very low mileage for a good price. Either we got a good deal, or the car is a lemon. So far, so good.





Young Stumbler #3 reports that the car smells like an "old man" inside. Maybe I need some air freshner...